Upcoming Exhibitions

See the Trailers!

The War Years: 1939-1949

From 1939 to 1949, Hollywood producers, directors, and writers used the medium of film to bring World War II to life for American viewers. A number of these movies included Jewish characters – though not always protagonists, not always explicitly Jewish, and often portrayed as victims – to illustrate what the Allied forces were fighting against, and what we were fighting for.

The Epic Cycle: 1949-1971

In the decades following World War II, filmmakers used a variety of storytelling tropes to address the roles of Jewish people in modern society. Unlike in the previous decades, Jewish characters were being depicted as the heroes and heroines of their own stories – stories from ancient history, the recent past, and the present day – reflecting the growing self-confidence of American Jews in the postwar era.